Reform UK Denies Climate Change

Climate change is one of the defining challenges of our time. The scientific consensus is overwhelming: human activity is warming the planet, and without urgent action, the consequences for future generations will be severe. Reform UK’s response to this challenge has been one of denial, delay, and deliberate obstruction.

”The Greatest Act of Negligence”

Reform UK’s 2024 general election manifesto, Our Contract with You, described net zero — the legally binding UK target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 — as “the greatest act of negligence in modern times”.¹

This is not a fringe view within the party. It is official policy, written into their manifesto and presented by Nigel Farage at the manifesto launch. The party pledged to:²

• Scrap net zero and all associated subsidies for renewable energy
• Increase drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, describing this as a “growth opportunity”
• Fast-track licences for shale gas (fracking), which was banned in England in 2019 due to its environmental risks
• Cancel investment in offshore wind projects

Reform proposed funding part of its manifesto by “scrapping net zero subsidies” — meaning the party’s fiscal plans were explicitly built on abandoning the UK’s climate commitments.³

Farage’s Record of Climate Scepticism

Nigel Farage has a lengthy personal record of questioning the scientific consensus on climate change. In January 2025, Farage was the guest of honour at the launch of a climate change denial lobby group, an event reported by The Independent.⁴ His attendance was not incidental — it reflected a consistent pattern of association with climate sceptic organisations and figures throughout his career.

Wikipedia’s overview of Farage’s political positions notes that he has repeatedly “voiced scepticism about climate change”.⁵ He has framed net zero as an attack on ordinary people’s living standards — leading his “Vote Power Not Poverty” campaign against net zero policies — without acknowledging that the long-term cost of inaction on climate change dwarfs the cost of the transition to clean energy.⁶

What Reform Voters Believe

A YouGov survey published in November 2024 found that Reform UK voters were significantly more likely than the general population to express scepticism about climate change.⁷ This is not a coincidence — it reflects years of messaging from Reform and its predecessor parties casting doubt on climate science and framing environmental policy as an elite imposition on working people.

The Real Cost of Reform’s Climate Policy

The International Energy Agency, the Committee on Climate Change, and economists across the political spectrum agree that delaying decarbonisation is far more expensive than acting now. Expanding North Sea oil and gas does not reduce energy bills — commodity prices are set globally. Scrapping renewable subsidies would increase dependence on volatile fossil fuel markets, of the kind that caused the energy crisis of 2022.

Meanwhile, the UK’s clean energy sector already employs hundreds of thousands of people. Reform’s plan would not protect workers — it would destroy jobs in growing industries to prop up a declining one.

Voting for Reform UK is a vote to abandon Britain’s climate commitments, hand our energy security to fossil fuel markets, and leave future generations to deal with the consequences.

Footnotes

1. Our Contract with You — Wikipedia ↩

2. Reform UK election pledges: 11 key policies analysed — BBC News, 18 June 2024 ↩

3. Farage unveils Reform UK’s £140bn pledges that economists say ‘do not add up’ — The Guardian, 17 June 2024 ↩

4. Farage was guest of honour at climate denial lobby group launch — The Independent, January 2025 ↩

5. Nigel Farage — Wikipedia: Political positions ↩

6. Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’ — The Guardian, 19 April 2025 ↩

7. What do Reform UK voters believe on climate change? — YouGov, 19 November 2024 ↩